Compel released this statement, to be uttered at the reseller's AGM today: "Although performance in the first quarter of the financial year was in linewith our budget, trading conditions, overall, continue to be difficult. We remain positive about our longer term prospects but see no early return to more normal market conditions."

The most Microsoft-friendly senator in the US is in deep trouble this morning, with the vote in the company's home state of Washington tied at 49 per cent apiece. Senator Slade Gorton and challenger Maria Cantwell jockeyed for a tiny lead in the early hours, and it could be a long, nail-biting process before either can be declared victor.

The French and the Spanish are much more likely to chat than do email. The Brits are more likely to be managing their buddy lists than chat. And the Germans can be found downloading files rather than manning their inbox.

The Business Software Alliance aka The Pirate Busters is growing so frustrated in its hopeless efforts to cut down on software piracy that it has decided propaganda and misinformation is the way forward.

The UK patent office has opened a consultation exercise on patenting of software and business methods, and has posted a pretty detailed and lucid questionnaire on its Web site. It's also kicked off a discussion group on the subject, and is asking for responses from all concerned - business, software authors, users and consumers - before December 15th.

AOL UK is displaying all the smugness of a US president elect who was told he was going to lose the election by the all-knowing TV networks but, when the time came, overturned the opinions of pundits and delivered victory right on the button.

Compaq appears to have canned plans to launch a notebook based on Transmeta's power-efficient x86-compatible processor, at least in the US. Like IBM and Toshiba, the PC vendor has concluded that Crusoe doesn't light the candle.

Intel has built its first semiconductors using a 0.13 micron (130nm) process. The chip behemoth has working static RAM and microprocessors using transistors approximately one thousandth the width of a human hair.

The hacker that gained access to several Microsoft servers through a known security hole on Friday claims he did it again yesterday (Tuesday). Dimitri says he uploaded a file called oopsididitagain which mocked MS' security policy.

Vodafone is to acquire a 25 per cent equity stake in Swisscom Mobile in exchange for £1.8 billion. Vodafone can pay for the stake in cash, shares or a combination of the two as it sees fit. In return Swisscom will get access to Vodafone products and services and will take part in its supply chain management.

Budget airline Ryanair has confirmed its status as one of the world's most profitable airlines with Q2 pre-tax profits rising 54 per cent to £33.7 million. Its net profit margin has grown from 25.7 to 30 per cent in the three months to 30 September.

Baltimore Technologies, the security specialists, announced losses of £7 million for the third quarter ending September 30. Revenues were up 24 per cent on last quarter and 215 per cent on the same quarter last year to £20.1 million.

Yesterday The Register reported that some customers of Web host Fasthosts, were unlawfuly having small amounts of Russian roubles charged to their credit cards. All the money was apparently going to a Moscow-based company called Incomtel.

Researchers at Duke University's looking into heart disease are using simulations running on an IBM SP supercomputer, based on the same technology as ASCI White. The machine has 720 processors and is currently ranked as the 16th most powerful computer in the world.

Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer Asus has seen its dotcom site hacked and down for the whole of today. Instead of the usual colourful layout, we are instead treated to a message from the charming and eloquent young man that hacked the site. It reads:

Microsoft is to incorporate a "signed application" system in Whistler, the intention being to furnish users with a super-secure mode of operation that just plain stops code executing on the machine. Unsigned code, that is. Speaking about Whistler in London today Microsoft VP for IT infrastructure and hosting Jim Ewel described this as being one of several security modes that can be implemented.